The Snowboard Kids: A Fanfic Volume 3
by Dentarg
Summary: A fictional storyline of the Snowboard Kids, from the mind of Michael A. Melendez
1. Default Chapter

Back by Popular demand, the next volume of Snowboard Kids: A Fanfic! By: Michael Anthony Melendez (Special Thanks to the Snow Show and other various people for the inspiration!)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
And so did Nancy Neil win the race at Mountain's Grace, the Catacombs of Silver Mountain. Her prize, the Viper Board, as well as the rest of the Snowboard Kids, would dedicate that day every year as their day to race on Silver Mountain, a day they would call, "The Race of Champions".  
  
But our story doesn't end here...  
  
A month passed by, and things had begun to get rather, different, in Snow Town, changes were being made, and in some cases, some less desirable people, were moving in, this didn't go well with the Snowboard Kids' free spirited antics, and in fact got them a little frustrated, this would mean that other kids would crowd the slopes, some would even be rude enough to attempt to butt in to the kids' fun.  
  
Whatever the case, the Kids would soon find out the problems, and the benefits, of change within Snow Town...  
  
This story, will begin...  
  
(Will publish the first chapter tomorrow, just a little intro for you guys to sink your teeth into!)


	2. Chapter 1: Arrivals

_(Note) Okay, I am a bit late on this chapter; sorry, just was working a lot this week. Anyway, here you go, the First Chapter of Snowboard Kids: A Fanfic Volume 3! (End Note)_  
  
Snow Town's day started like any other, at the crack of dawn good old Mr. Dog would open his shop up for business, the kids would go to school, and much hustle and bustle would occur in the city itself.  
  
Needless to say, we know where our kids are going today...  
  
Our story begins at Slash's house, who he had Jam sleep over for the day as his parents kicked him out for playing the music too loud at night, they had rarely done this to him, but it seemed that they must have finally gotten tired of it. Jam was given his own room to sleep in at Slash's house, as Slash and his parents had a spare room for guests of all sorts.  
  
"Wake up Jam." Slash said to Jam, trying to wake him up, Jam woke up slowly, still a bit tired, he had been up late when his parents gave him the boot for the incident, and he really wanted some sleep. "What? What time is it?" Jam said sleepily. "Its 6:00 in the morning bud." Slash said. Jam gave Slash a look of concern, then spoke, "Why are you waking me up at 6:00 in the morning, when I can wake up perfectly fine at 7:00 in the morning to get up and get to school?" Slash gave his question a little thought, then replied, "Well, I was hoping to go take a look over at Mr. Dog's Shop before we head to school, show him my board, maybe he can take a look at it, even though we kind of already solved the whole mystery of the 'Viper Board'." Jam stood up from his bed and stretched, wearing a throw- away shirt and some boxers, he blinked a couple of times, looked at a mirror hanging on the closet door, and quickly began to fix his hair, in a total of 12 seconds, Jam's hair was as good as new. "I could use a nice stop over at Mr. Dog's, maybe get a new board too." Jam said as he finished his hair.  
  
The two quickly ran downstairs and quickly turned the corner into the kitchen. Just as any hungry boys will do in the morning, they quickly raided the refrigerator. Slash grabbed himself some breakfast burritos and poured himself a glass of orange juice, while Jam snagged a bowl of cereal and a glass of chocolate milk. They hastily gobbled up their food, obviously wanting to get to the shop with plenty of time, they then ran into their rooms and rushed to get dressed.  
  
It took about 3 minutes for them both to get ready, they then again slid down the stairs and then out the door. They grabbed their snowboards which were conveniently sitting on the side of Slash's front door. They mounted their boards and glided off down Snowboard Street to go to Mr. Dog's Shop.  
  
Along the way, they noticed Linda outside her castle walls, pacing back and forth, she looked very nervous. They stopped a moment to see what the matter was. "What's up Linda?" Slash said, Jam saying the same thing right after him. Linda sort of jumped at their voices, but turned to them. "Oh, hi guys." She said in a meek voice, "Did you go into town yet?" The two boys looked at each other then shook their heads no, Linda frowned at this, "My daddy told me that there was going to be a lot of new faces in Snow Town, ever since they began offering housing for less prices, I am guessing it's to start reeling in the tourists or something." Linda said. "Ugh, you mean we've got to deal with more people on the street now?" Jam said, not liking the sound of this. "That's not the worst part Jam." Linda replied, "Many of the houses being offered are family homes, that also means more kids, which also means we'll have people trying to learn to snowboard, which ALSO means we'll have people wanting to BE like us!"  
  
"Why should that make you nervous Linda? Aren't you used to fame and fortune?" Slash joked, Linda didn't at all take this humorously, quickly giving Slash a harsh glare, "You don't get it do you Slash?" Linda started, "I can deal with a group of people looking up to me, but an entire mob?!" Linda cried out, obviously stressed, she was not used to being in places with millions of people. "Well, I really don't like the idea of this either." Slash said, looking further down Snowboard Street, "But whatever is going to happen, we're going to have to see how bad it is first, then we'll start taking action."  
  
Linda seemed to feel better, she shook Slash's hand and nodded. "Thanks a lot Slash, that helped a lot." Jam sort of frowned, until Linda also shook his hand, then he felt like he was being noticed again. "I've got to get ready for school you two, I'll see you there." Linda said, as she opened the gate to her castle and disappeared behind the large metal doors. The two boys nodded, and continued down Snowboard Street.  
  
They finally reached Snow Town, but when they got there they did not see the calm, peaceful little village they normally would hang out in, instead they saw a barrage of moving trucks, construction vehicles, and also a lot of cars and people talking to each other. Slash and Jam felt very congested in this gobbledygook and whittled their way to Mr. Dog's Shop, it felt like an eternity passed before they could even reach the door.  
  
Fortunately for them, no one was yet in Mr. Dog's Shop, as soon as they got in, Mr. Dog came out from his back room. "Oh, hello there kids, how can I help you today?" Mr. Dog greeted them. "Wow..." Slash started, "Mr. Dog, how long ago did that darn army of cars, trucks, and people get here? That's insane!"  
  
Mr. Dog frowned seeing the crowd outside of his glass window, then spoke, "Yeah, I don't like this new deal for people either, I mean it's good for business, but it's going to be very bad on the town morale." Slash was curious at this. "What do you mean morale?" Slash asked, Mr. Dog quickly replied, "Snow Town already has a good reputation as a place to get away from reality and to be your own self, like how I sell my Snowboards here, and you all Snowboard. The people moving here could be moving here for their own reasons, and for selfish reasons, it worries me to think also how much they'll actually care that they live here, I don't want to see our beautiful Snowboard Courses, and our nice Snow-Capped City get dirtied and destroyed." Slash and Jam nodded. "What about the rules for the courses and such? You said yourself no more than four people can be racing at a time on a course." Jam said. Mr. Dog sighed, then continued, "Well, for that, if the numbers of people are as big as I fear they are, I will have to change my rules so that more people can board."  
  
Jam and Slash frowned at this, then looked at the clock in the shop. "Uh oh, it's 8:20, we've gotta get to school!" Slash agreed, and they both began to sprint for the door. "Hold on a moment kids, did you guys have something else to say before you go?" Mr. Dog said, I can always call up your school and excuse your late arrival, since you have a good reason. "The kids turned back, Slash smiled, and held out his Blaze Board, "I was wondering if you would be able to take a look at this while I'm in class, then when I get back can you tell me what it's about." Slash asked Mr. Dog. Mr. Dog smiled and replied, "Oh, of course! There's no board that I can't identify."  
  
With that, the kids left, and Mr. Dog picked up the phone for Snow Town Elementary School. "Hello, Student Services? This is Mr. Dog from Mr. Dog's Snowboard Shop. I am requesting that Jam Kuehnemund and Slash Kamei have their attendance held, the new arrivals have really backed things up, and they had no control over it. They were forced to stop in my shop before leaving again, or they would have gotten eaten up by this mass of humanity outside." He listens a bit "Alright? Thanks a lot, you all have a nice day." He hung up the phone and sighed, looking outside at the crowd. "Oh boy..." Mr. Dog said, "I really hope the mayor knows what he's doing with this..."

_(I will continue the story when I get time, I hope you like it so far)_


	3. Chapter 2: Unwelcome Newcomers

It was another slow, dull and dreary trip to school for our good Snowboard Kids. Slash quickly kicked his board up as he slid up to the doors of the school. Jam quickly followed behind, but for laughs, he kicked his board up on the handrail and grinded the handrail for a good two seconds before finally getting on his feet, to the front door.  
  
"I hope Mrs. Steeder doesn't bite my head off again." Slash said. "What are you worried about Slash?" Jam asked, "Firstly, as far as I've known you, you could care less of what Steeder cares about, and secondly, Mr. Dog already got us an excuse for our late arrival." Slash nodded, definitely agreeing with Jam. "Alright, come on Jam, let's go then."  
  
The school year was winding down to a slower crawl these days as Summer Vacation approached; in fact, it was about two months away. Slash already was brewing up plans in his mind for the Summer days to come, but he also was a tad worried about his grades, Mrs. Steeder had called his parents about a week ago telling them that Slash was failing his math classes, and that if he didn't turn his grades up soon, he'd end up bombing math, and have to stay in the same grade next year. This was enough to get Slash to actually begin thinking more on his classes, though it didn't change his outlook on Snowboarding at all.  
  
Slash walked to the student service office in his school, and spoke with one of the secretaries, they quickly wrote him up a pass for his class, as well as one for Jam, and then sent him on his way.  
  
As Slash entered his classroom, he could see Mrs. Steeder sitting and lecturing her class of 20 students on some of the basic fundamentals of geometry. "Alright class, so if a shape has two groups of sides of equal angle, it is called...?" the teacher spoke. Nancy, who was almost unnoticeable in the group of children, darted her hand up. "Yes Nancy?" the teacher allowed. "It's called a Parallelogram Mrs. Steeder." Nancy answered with confidence. The teacher smiled and nodded. "Excellent. Good work Nancy."  
  
Mrs. Steeder finally noticed Slash, and motioned to the class to wait a moment. Slash walked up to his teacher and handed her the pass. Mrs. Steeder gave Slash a suspicious look, then spoke, "You weren't out snowboarding during school hours again were you?" Slash shook his head, "Unless I have miraculously found a way to swim through over a thousand new residents, no I have not been snowboarding." Slash replied slyly. The teacher frowned at this, "Ahh, even you're suffering from them too, hmm Slash?" the teacher asked. "Bah, I was coming to school anyway, but we had to wait for the crowd to die down, so Mr. Dog called in for us since we were in his neighborhood." Slash replied.  
  
"Well, don't worry Slash, as long as you were coming to class, I won't hurt your grade because you tried. Did you have your homework from yesterday as well Slash?" Mrs. Steeder asked. "Umm, homework, homework..." Slash mumbled, patting parts of his jacket, finally patting a piece of paper in his coat pocket. "Oh yeah! Here it is." Little did Mrs. Steeder know that Slash had done his homework during class the other day, sneaking peeks off Linda's paper from time to time.  
  
He handed the paper to the teacher, and the teacher nodded, giving Slash a pencil. "Alright Slash, you go and find a seat with the class, we're having a little quiz right now." Slash nodded, then found an empty seat near Nancy, and also near Jam, whom seemed to have beaten Slash to the classroom.  
  
The school day continued on for an almost endless period of time, it felt as if the day was just beginning throughout the entire day, the sky was bright, the sun was shining, everyone in school just wanted to go outside and have some fun. The day FINALLY ended after Mrs. Steeder assigned an interesting project though, to Slash and his class partner...  
  
"Slash, I am going to be giving you a chance to get a better grade here in class, I have a project that I would like you and another to do." The teacher began, "You know in Social Studies as of late we're studying how people travel and move about, well with the new crowds coming into Snow Town, I would like you to compare this Snow Town immigration with the immigration patterns of the old pioneers."  
  
"But, why?" Slash said, confused. "Well, you've been struggling in Social Studies almost as much as you have been in math Slash, it's showing in your work effort even that you're not giving your work your all. In math I see you have the potential, you are just, not challenged enough, but I want you to at least get a C grade in Social Studies..." Mrs. Steeder suggested.  
  
"Fine, fine..." Slash said uninterestedly, "Who's my class partner?"  
  
The teacher looked through her clipboard, and nodded. "Linda Maltinie is the only one available with no partner, so I am going to be pairing her up with you." The teacher replied, this made Slash's skin go pale, he'd never worked with Linda before, and he was scared as to what things could possibly happen. "Are you sure there's no one else?" Slash asked. The teacher simply shook her head. Slash groaned, looked up, then swallowed his pride before saying, "Alright, I'll do it."  
  
As the kids began to leave school, many of them had begun gathering around someone in the parking lot at school, Slash looked closer to reveal that it was a newer kid, he seemed to be dancing in the middle of the parking lot, doing some fancy gymnastics, even though the kid didn't look at all like he could be able to pull these stunts.  
  
"Wow, he's pretty good." Slash commented to himself, looking about, he then continued on down to Snow Town, and sure enough, the crowd was STILL there, even thicker than before. Slash quickly made his way to Mr. Dog's Shop before the last opening near his shop was to be buried behind a crowd of newcomers.  
  
"They're still thick as pea soup out there, hmm Slash?" Mr. Dog said assuring to Slash. "It's as if I won't be going home until midnight." He continued, as he looked outside the glass doors of his shop, seeing and hearing the army of people outside his shop.  
  
"Mr. Dog, did you take a look at my board?" Slash asked, Mr. Dog nodded, and motioned Slash to his back room, Slash followed, and looked inside, there was a large amount of fresh new boards inside as well, some custom made by Mr. Dog himself, some, perhaps imported.  
  
"Your board, it's actually quite an antique, but this antique I would recommend still using, it's almost as reliable as those nicely kept cars you see in bigger cities." Mr. Dog explained, "It's obviously a Blaze Board, they don't make these anymore as it's said they are a little dangerous because of their ability to absorb the chemicals of a bomb weapon. They say sometimes these boards will spontaneously explode if they are over-used, but I have not yet seen one do it, this is in fact, one of my first times seeing a Blaze Board in such good condition."  
  
"Nice; and I only got it from winning a contest..." Slash added.  
  
"Then you really earned a heck of a prize in this board." Mr. Dog supported Slash's comment, the retail price on such a desirable board is around 150,000 gold coins to this date, that would make getting the star board seem pointless." Slash's jaw dropped at that comment. "Wow, you're saying it's better than a Star Board?" he asked. "Well, in some aspects yes it is." Mr. Dog started, "Only thing is that the board is a little top- heavy due to the bronze used in the craftsmanship, it makes it heavier, allowing it added speed, but harder control. It's a lot like an Alpine board, so it's a little awkward to use unless you know how to work with it."  
  
"Well, mostly I just use it only when I want to beat the stuffing out of people in races." Slash replied, "Lately I have just been keeping it in top shape, so I can sport it to my friends."  
  
"Well, whatever the case, I'd say keep that board, don't lose it, that's a piece of history you're holding there." Mr. Dog chuckled. "Alright then, thanks a lot Mr. Dog, you helped a lot in finding out what this board was." Slash said. "No problem at all Slash, just keep that board in good shape and it will be a good board to keep around." Mr. Dog replied. Slash then slowly walked towards the doorway, but as he looked at the glass doorway, he looked in complete surprise as the horde of people in front of the store had only grown bigger.  
  
"Aww man, now how am I going to get to Jam's place in time?" Slash complained. "Well Slash, I guess you could use the back door, normally I'm not allowed to let people use it, but I've known you for a while, so go ahead." Mr. Dog offered. "Oh, thanks a lot Mr. Dog!" Slash cheered as he ran for the back door.  
  
Fortunately, there was no one in the back of Mr. Dog's shop, and Slash easily was able to get around the crowd of people.  
  
Meanwhile, atop a hill near Snow Town, Linda was training herself in some interesting techniques, Nancy had soon come along to watch, and also participate in a little snowboarding with Linda.  
  
"Wow Linda, those are some nice moves you have been doing as of late." Nancy complimented. "I've been practicing more often ever since the movements started out there." Linda started, "The thing I see is, the new people are going to want to be like us, want to imitate us and such, what I am trying to do is develop some new tricks of my own so that they can not imitate me, I also want to stay among the top ranked when it comes to holding records in Snow Town."  
  
"That's true." Nancy said, "I've actually come up with a new trick of my own, I call it the Shooting Star, instead of the Spinning Star. Wanna see?"  
  
Linda nodded, and sat down, watching as Nancy began gaining momentum to perform her trick, as he went off the jump, she pushed herself forward even faster, she looked almost as if she was doing some sort of suicide dive towards the snow!  
  
"Whoa, careful Nancy!" Linda shouted, getting up. Nancy seemed focused though on what she was doing, as she began falling to the ground, she grabbed the back of her board, pulled herself in a full 3 rotations backwards, then landed forward with her board.  
  
Linda gawked at the amazing technique, then quickly applauded. "That had to have taken some good timing to nail! Nice work Nancy!"  
  
Nancy smiled and stopped her board, got off, and quickly ran back up the hill. "Took me a good 3 days to develop that trick, I like it." She said.  
  
As she spoke, they noticed a bunch more figures heading up the hill from the other side, it wasn't two or three as the kids were used to, it was a good 20 or 30 people heading up the hill! "What in the name of..." Linda started, but was cut off by a stampede of new residential people, all armed with snowboards, sleds, and ski gear, they completely blew off Linda and Nancy, and began to take control of the entire hill.  
  
"Oh great!" Linda said sarcastically, "Now how are we supposed to practice with a throng of wanna-be snowboarders and skiers clogging the slopes?" Nancy frowned, looking at all the newcomers, "Wow, there sure are a lot of them." She said. "No kidding!" Linda added, "My daddy did say that there would be more residents, I never thought THIS much!"  
  
"Let's get out of here..." Linda finally suggested, "Maybe we can do a few runs at my castle." Nancy nodded, and agreed, "Yeah, this many people is WAY too much..."  
  
They hastily ran away from the horde of newcomers, and quickly made their way towards Snow Town once again...  
  
(Is this how Snow Town is going to end up? A tourist trap? Find out more later) 


	4. Chapter 3: Rival's Phone Call

Slash had managed to weave his way around town back to his house after a great effort, and proceeded up into his room. "Well, it's cool that I learned a bit more about the Blaze Board…" Slash said to himself, "But still, now a Social Studies project with Linda? That's like handing my opponents weapons at the start of a race, and letting me get the head start." While hesitant, Slash already knew that if he didn't do this project, it would be counted against him, and he may in fact be in danger of failing, so after gathering a bit of courage, Slash picked up the phone in his room, looked up Linda's number in the phonebook, and dialed up Linda.

After a few moments, Linda, who had just returned home herself, bringing Nancy along with, finally answered the line. "Hello, this is Linda." Linda replied.

"Umm, Linda, this is Slash…" Slash began, but was quickly stopped by Linda. "Slash! What do you want? I told you never to call me! This better be good."

"Well, it's like this…" Slash began again, "The teacher told me that she wanted me to do a Social Studies project, and that since you're not doing anything and haven't had a partner in your last project, that you would be my partner in this."

Linda hesitated a moment. "You're not serious? This is some sort of prank, isn't it?" She asked. "Actually this isn't." Slash insisted in return. Linda did not enjoy this at all, in fact she went as far as to give an unsatisfying groan over the phone, needless to say, this annoyed Slash as well.

"Look…" Slash began again, "I really don't want to work with you either, but if I don't get a good grade on this, I'm going to fail Social Studies and probably get held back." Linda pondered a moment, then answered; "Well, as much as I would like to see you fail to something again, given all the chaos you've given me, I wouldn't deny you something like this." Slash sighed with relief. "Thank you, thank you Linda!" He pleaded, "Just don't have me do all the work…" Linda warned, "If you do, I'll make sure you don't get your half of the grade."

Slash agreed, the both of them then began to set up a schedule on how they would take on this project, after a bit of work, they began to once again talk casually.

"I finally found out what you meant about all those new people coming to Snow Town." Slash said over the phone. "It's like a gigantic web of people trying to catch us, heck I even had trouble getting to school this morning through Snow Town with all the people just in Snow Town Central."

"Tell me about it." Linda replied, fiddling with one of her pigtails while chatting on the phone, "Nancy and I were trying to practice our techniques earlier, Nancy was showing me one of her new tricks that she's been working on, it was really something! Unfortunately before I could try to design any of my own, the slopes were swamped up by rookies, and I don't mean just any rookies, as in people who probably haven't even boarded, gone sledding, or skied in their lifetime."

"Speaking of rookies and skill…" Slash began again, "I saw this kid just outside the school, he was doing some dancing and interesting moves, kind of like how Jam does occasionally, except he was adding a bit of everything into it."

"Oh, that kid?" Linda asked. "That's Roger, he's actually been in Snow Town before, he just moved back to town, he competed in a tournament a while ago far to the north and decided to stay there, according to what he told me after one of our classes, he came back after the tournament stopped being held, supposedly snowboarding is in his family, yet I've never seen him snowboard when he was here before."

Slash thought to himself, "Another snowboarder; makes me curious as to what this person can do."

Linda continued speaking, "From what he told me, he never actually would snowboard on any of the courses, he said he was called an All Ground Snowboarder, which is supposedly a form of snowboarding that means he knows how to snowboard on any sort of surface and still be good on it, kind of like what we try when we go to Quicksand Valley or Grass Valley. The only thing is, unlike us, he can keep complete control over his board, or so he says."

Slash smirked a bit and spoke enthusiastically, "Well then, I REALLY have to race this guy. If he can do that, I wonder how he'll do if we take him to Dizzy Land…"

Linda smiled, "That's a good idea, maybe when we have some free time on our hands, we can challenge him to a race there."

Slash cheered and clenched a fist shouting into the phone with excitement, "Yeah!"

Linda moved her ear away from the phone to avoid getting it blasted by Slash's voice, then placed it back, "You know, this is surprising, I thought you'd only be prank calling me, and in fact we actually had a civilized conversation."

Slash blinked a bit, surprised she pointed that out, "Uhh, you know, you got a point." Slash ran his finger through his hair and blinked again, seeming a tad confused on how this actually occurred.

"Perhaps this is just a fluke, but perhaps there may actually be some sense in you." Linda said.

"Well, I guess that's a compliment…" Slash said sarcastically.

"Anyway, remember to meet me at Wendy's Internet around 4:00 PM, after school tomorrow, we can start with how the pioneers left their homes to search for a new place to live, and compare it as to why people here have moved to Snow Town." Linda said, obviously reminding Slash of his assignment.

"Will do, thanks for the help Linda…" Slash said, a tad quietly, as if ashamed to say it.

Linda hesitated at noticing this sudden change of volume in Slash's voice, then simply said, "No problem, take care Slash." Linda then hung up the phone.

"So, Slash is your Social Studies partner?" Nancy said, still sitting near Linda, it seemed Nancy had overheard the entire conversation.

"Yeah, strange too, I've never actually heard Slash sound intelligent like that before, he reminded me of Wendy." Linda joked.

"Well, maybe after all that's happened in the past, something's jerked Slash in a different direction, you do know it's been a while since you both have actually been fighting." Nancy replied.

"Hmm, you know, I think perhaps with this change of pace, perhaps some good can come of it, who knows, I might actually begin to like Slash." Linda said, tapping her chin quizzically. "Then again, it's so easy to lose someone's trust, yet so hard to gain it."

Nancy simply nodded, knowing that something was obviously stirring between the snooty rich girl, and the headstrong spiky-headed kid.

- End Chapter 3, Rejoice, the hiatus is over, my fanfic shall continue!


	5. Chapter 4: What's the Motive?

The next day came rather quickly, as Slash got his snowboard and headed out for school. Along the way, he ran into Jam just outside where Linda's Castle opened up to.

"What are you doing here Jam? I'm surprised you're not already down at the school." Slash said.

"I pretty much gave up trying to get through the crowd down there, did you see how many people were there today? There's no way school can expect to have class today." Jam explained; motioning towards the schoolhouse's direction, unfortunately two large rocket slides that the kids used as part of the Snowboard Street Course blocked the view of the schoolhouse.

"Hmm, well I at least better check, I'm supposed to meet Linda today after school for the project." Slash continued.

"You're really gonna go through with it, are you?" Jam asked.

"I really don't have a choice, if I fail it, I'm likely to fail my class, and just imagining the reaction my mom will give me isn't exactly something I want to see." Slash replied, wincing a bit.

Jam winced as well, already knowing what Slash's mother was like.

"Well then, I'll go along, I've got nothing better to do at the moment." Jam said, kicking his board down onto the snow and getting on, following Slash as they both drifted down Snowboard Street.

On the way, they came across Tommy, who was sitting on top of a sidewall, looking out towards Snow Town; they stopped to talk to the large kid.

"What the, Tommy? What are you doing up there?" Jam said, looking confused.

The large kid nibbled a hamburger as he looked down; finishing what was in his mouth, he began to speak. "School decided to cancel today, I heard it from Mrs. Steeder. She had everyone leave through the playground doors to avoid the crowd. A lot of the kids just decided to hang around the playground rather than try to go home, they're pretty much cut off from their homes with all the people waiting near City Hall."

Slash grumbled. "Great, not only is this crowd getting annoying and taking our snowboarding territory, now they're getting our classes cancelled and hurting my hopes of passing!"

"Wait a minute Slash, are you hearing yourself? Class was CANCELLED." Jam said, with a small smirk.

Slash grinned a bit and thought a moment. "Good point, means no class, also means no need to worry about the project today…"

"Wait, wait wait…" Tommy said, shaking a hand in disagreement. "If I remember correctly, I overheard something about that project you're talking about, aren't you working with Linda?"

"Well, yeah…" Slash said.

"If I know Linda, she's not going to like having to put things off to the last minute." Tommy said, nodding his head sagely. "I would suggest you at least contact her before you go getting yourself off into trouble."

Slash blinked, obviously confused. "Since when did you become dad, Tommy?"

"I'm not your dad, I just don't want to see Linda chasing you around with a board again." Tommy replied with a slight smirk, taking another bite of his burger.

"She doesn't scare me." Slash said, picking up his board again. "Something happened and we weren't prepared for it, so if anything I'll wait for her to get a hold of me."

"I'll back you up on that, Slash." Jam said, giving his friend a high-five. Let's head over to Big Snowman and get some practice in, it's never too early to be practicing for the next tournament coming up."

Slash nodded and followed Jam down the street, Tommy just passively shook his head and bit into his hamburger.

Meanwhile, at school, Linda was in the playground outside sitting at a picnic table, her legs crossed, tapping one foot out into the air. Nancy was sitting across from her, occupying herself with a small rubix cube.

"Where IS he?" Linda exclaimed, obviously a tad irritated at Slash not even showing up to class.

"Well, class did let out early…" Nancy said with a tad of assurance.

"That's no excuse, I told him specifically to meet me after school." Linda fumed.

"I'm not sure then…" Nancy said, thinking a bit to herself, putting her cube away. "Want me to try and see if I can find him?"

"Please do." Linda said with a tad of relief, nodding to Nancy.

Nancy smiled, took her board out from under the table, and headed away from the school towards the Snowboard Street Lift-in, which was still working even now. She got on the lift-in and rode it the entire way up to the top. After getting off the lift, she got onto her board and began her descent down Snowboard Street in pursuit of Slash.

Nancy quickly thought to visit the most obvious place for Slash to be, his house. After arriving and knocking on the door, she spoke with Mrs. Kamei for a brief moment asking where Slash was. Finding no leads, she bid her goodbyes to Mrs. Kamei and continued down Snowboard Street.

Meanwhile, Linda was growing more impatient, taking out a notebook and her Social Studies book as she began to write a title page for the project.

Returning to Snowboard Street, Nancy continued to search the streets, and eventually came across Tommy, who was still up on the sidewall as he was when Slash and Jam met him. Tommy waved to Nancy, getting her attention.

"Hey there Nancy, the crowds giving you much trouble too?" Tommy greeted and climbed down the sidewall, to engage in a more direct conversation with Nancy.

"Well, I just took the lift-in, so not really, they probably will on the way back though." Nancy said, gritting her teeth, remembering the stampede of people on the slopes when her and Linda were practicing. "Have you seen Slash anywhere? Linda's looking for him, he was supposed to meet her after school."

Tommy frowned and gulped, then began to answer. "Well, it seems Slash thought otherwise. He went to Big Snowman with Jam to do some snowboarding, he probably thought Linda wouldn't care since class was cancelled."

Nancy performed a classic face-to-palm connection upon herself, sliding her hand down her face as he realized this. "Ugh, now he's going to hear it from Linda…"

Tommy frowned again, and went behind the sidewall, bringing his board back with him as he returned from it. "I better get home myself, my dad wanted some help at the restaurant today…"

Nancy nodded a tad. "Oh yeah, your dad recently was able to open his business up again after everyone moved here, wasn't he?"

Tommy smiled and nodded. "It's been getting good business too. I just hope that he can handle all the people, everyone's getting worried with the population increasing as quickly as it is."

Nancy nodded again. "No kidding, did Linda already tell you what we found at the slopes the other day?" Tommy simply shook his head, Nancy continued. "People had gone to the slopes as well to snowboard, sled, ski, and all of that, and because of it we couldn't get any practice in. If this is the same everywhere around here as it was at the slopes, I don't think Slash is going to get much out of Big Snowman, especially since Big Snowman is the largest of the courses, and the most friendly for those just starting out, well aside from Rookie Mountain."

"Whoa, just imagine how flooded Rookie Mountain is right now!" Tommy joked.

Nancy didn't even snicker, but continued, "I'm getting back to Linda, she's probably gotten impatient by now."

Tommy nodded and waved to Nancy as she left.

After leaving Tommy, Nancy found herself on the opposite side of the crowd of people flooding Snow Town, she got off her board, carried it with her, and made her way carefully through the people until she finally reached the school grounds again.

"Did you find him?" Linda asked, seeing Nancy approach.

"Well, you see…" Nancy began, then revealed Slash's whereabouts.

"Argh! I should have figured!" Linda said, stomping her foot on the ground, tossing her notebook to the side. "He'll never pass his class if he doesn't take this seriously! I'm going after him."

"Are you sure? If anything I'd think that would just get him to want to race you." Nancy suggested.

"Well, race or no race, he's going to do his share of the work, I'm not going to do it all for him, he's not exempt!" Linda argued.

"How about I get him?" said a voice near Nancy, whom turned around to see where the voice came from.

"Roger…?" Linda asked, looking to the athletic-looking boy that stood behind Nancy.

"Linda, you mentioned this Slash kid to be a braggart about his skills on the slopes right?" Roger began. "Perhaps for him to stop, he merely needs his spirit broken in, like how you tame a horse or something."

"Oh believe me, I've tried that already." Linda said, attempting to dismiss Roger's offer.

"Well, at least let me race him, you can come along to get him to do his work, but I want to at least try and race this kid, after what I heard from you, and from others I asked about him, he's pretty good on the slopes." Roger argued.

"Fine, fine." Linda submitted. "I warn you though, you're likely to get upset with him with how much he boasts.

"I doubt it." Roger argued again. "I've raced out north with people like him, they're mostly all talk, no game. If he's as you say, he's just the same, and I eat those people for lunch in races…"

- Who exactly is Roger? Why does he want to race Slash? Find out next chapter. (Reviews welcome!)


	6. Chapter 5: Dire Realizations

It didn't take long for Nancy, Linda, and Roger to make their way to Big Snowman, with the fury that Linda brought with her, much of the crowd parted in fear of what the little rich girl might be truly angry on; needless to say, the parting of the crowd was short-lived after her and the others passed through, as it sealed right back up after they went through.

A few moments later, they arrived at Big Snowman, conveniently enough to catch a glimpse of Slash and Jam coming up from the Lift-In nearby.

"SLASH KAMEI!" Linda shouted, slamming her foot repeatedly in the ground from her frustration. "Get your lying, spiky head over here, NOW!"

Slash's face went pale as he heard Linda's angry voice, turning his board to a stop and looking to Jam as he got off the lift.

Jam held a hand up to his ear and got wind of Linda's spouting, "Ohhh man…" Jam said, "Sounds like maybe we shouldn't have done this."

"Something tells me I'm gonna get a lecture if I stay and listen to Linda, but school's not open today, I'm not staying and getting lectured!" Slash insisted, motioning Jam to follow.

"Heh, like I said, I'd back you up if it came to it." Jam supported, kicking himself back onto his board and following Slash down the slopes once again.

Linda caught a glimpse of Slash and Jam gliding down the hill; she grabbed a nearby board from the area near the starting position and quickly jumped on it.

"Hey! That's my board, girl!" said a random snowboarder, obviously owning the board.

"You'll get it back in a moment, either that or I'll buy you a new one!" Linda barked back, force apparent in her voice. The boarder backed down, and Linda sped off.

Roger stroked his fingers through his hair as Linda dashed downwards, taking his own board down upon the ground; it looked like an interesting design, it had the markings of what made an Alpine Board, but had some more reinforced edging to the rim of the board, from what the kids were used to, a board like that wouldn't go anywhere as it would bury itself in the snow.

Nancy looked at Roger with a confused look, "How are you going to board on that thing?" she said, "It won't move in the snow, it's got too much resistance."

"Believe me, there's ways for it to…" Roger replied; giving a quick snap of his legs, he pulled himself and his board up off the ground, then landed back upon the snow, the board surprisingly gliding atop the snow, and with added weight, made the board surprisingly fast.

Nancy blinked, then realized she was being left behind, she took up her own board and followed the pack.

Linda had already begun to gain ground on Jam, she pulled from her outfit a slapstick, and lobbed it at Jam angrily. It hit him square, even as he attempted to dodge it, and caused him to face plant into the snow.

Linda zoomed next to Jam and grabbed him by the collar, dragging him and his board along as she held onto him; this obviously slowed her down. Linda began yelling at Jam.

"Jam!" Linda began in her flaming rage, "After I get Slash, I'm going to personally get you for this!" Linda then tossed Jam to the side, once again causing him to face plant into the snow, Linda then gave a bit of momentum into her board, and went off of one of Big Snowman's jumps, attempting to gain speed and ground on Slash.

Jam rubbed his now cold face, blinking a few times as he got up. "Yeah, today's not a good day to tick her off…" he said taking a moment to fix his hair.

Nancy slowed down next to Jam, while Roger continued to follow the pack. Nancy helped Jam up, "I still don't see why you guys did this, Slash knew he was supposed to meet Linda, why didn't he come?"

"Well, technically there was no class." Jam said defensively, but Nancy cut him off.

"Come on, Jam…" Nancy insisted. "We all know what Linda meant, I mean even Slash should have been able to know that, now it just made her angry."

Jam shrugged a bit and looked down towards the others, who were now far off in the distance. "Well, I suppose it's up to Linda now to figure it out, I mean that's what Slash said even, if she wanted to fix this, she needed to tell him."

"That's not right either." Nancy said with a scolding tone, "She set a time and a place for Slash to meet her, and he didn't show up because the both of you thought 'this' was more important than school. Not only that, wait…"

"What?" Jam said, scratching the back of his head.

"Since school ended, won't that mean people will start going to the slopes?" Nancy said with a worried tone.

Jam blinked, and his eyes widened, "Oh man, and the bottom of Big Snowman is usually packed!"

Nancy nodded, then urged Jam to follow, which he began to, the two tricksters followed each other down the slopes, hopefully to catch up to their friends.

Meanwhile, Linda had now gotten Slash in her sights, and was quickly gaining on him, Slash looked back, seeing Linda with her enraged face, and gave a quick "Eep!" as he continued to struggle forward for more speed, hopefully to outrun the angry rich girl.

Roger had also gained ground, even beginning to approach Linda. "Here, I'll take care of it…" Roger insisted to Linda, but the Maltinie girl didn't listen, only focusing on Slash.

Roger simply shook his head, then took a freeze shot from his coat pocket, tossing it up and down in his hand, aiming carefully, he threw the shot, and although it seemed he was aiming for Slash, he pegged Linda with the shot, freezing her in her tracks in a solid block of ice.

Roger frowned a bit, steering his board out of Linda's way, and continuing to pursue Slash, taking another freeze shot from his pocket.

Slash looked back, noticing that Linda was not following him anymore, but instead Roger was. "Oh, hey, what you doing out here on Big Snowman?" Slash asked while in the midst of boarding.

"Well, I heard you've got a meeting with Linda, and I've been meaning to meet you myself…" Roger continued, keeping the freeze shot behind his back, keeping Slash from suspecting something. "I heard a lot about you, and was hoping sometime we could actually race. Maybe if you're not busy, we could race, soon?"

"Heh, I was actually hoping to race you too." Slash said with a cheery look on his face. "I was going to challenge you to our little course after hours, it's called Dizzy Land, and it's open only after 6:00 PM, if you want to race, let's race there, alright?"

"Sounds like a plan…" Roger said, "In the meantime, Linda 'has' been wanting to speak with you, so…" cutting himself off in midst of conversation, he lobbed the freeze shot at Slash, catching him off guard, and freezing him right before another jump.

"Gwaah!" Slash uttered, as he froze solid. Roger turned his board sideways to stop right along the now frozen Slash, avoiding a crash. A few moments later, Linda, who had finally thawed herself, stopped next to the two, got off her board, and began smacking the frozen Kamei boy with it. "You NEVER leave me waiting Slash Kamei, NEVER!" the Maltinie girl ranted as she continued the punishment.

Roger put a hand to his head and shook his head, sighing a moment, then watched as Slash thawed from his icy prison, now being thoroughly beaten by Linda and her board. "Ack! Ow! Sorry! Sorry, I didn't mean it!" Slash pleaded as he was being pulverized.

Linda stopped a moment, not believing what she was hearing. "Didn't mean it! You said you'd be there, and instead you ditched me just so you could go snowboarding! Mrs. Steeder isn't giving us a lot of time for this project you know, and the project isn't going to make itself! Now either you come with me and we get to work on this project, or I'm simply going to tell Mrs. Steeder that you won't do any of the work, and I'll do an independent assignment. While I can still do one of those, and have a decent grade, you're out of luck on that!"

Slash sighed, then got up finally from his bludgeoning, and nodded. "Fine, fine, I just hope this isn't too boring…" Slash complained.

"Boring or not Slash…" Linda replied, "You're going to help do this assignment, or you're not going to get any credit for it. If you ditch me or start slacking off on this project again, I swear I'll simply let you fail."

Then finally, after a bit of catching up, Nancy and Jam finally caught up to the rest of the kids.

"Slash, Linda, Roger…" Nancy spoke, a tad out of breath. "Good, good, you're all not at the bottom of the course yet…"

"What, what do you mean?" Slash said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, Nancy and I just realized something about the courses…" Jam added. "You know how school's out today and stuff, that means people are going to be all over the place, and since Big Snowman's a hot spot for boarders AND tourists…"

"…the bottom of Big Snowman's probably going to look pretty nasty." Slash continued, easily catching on to Jam's meaning. "Well, great, now how do we get off this course?"

"Let's at least get to the bottom of the course first, and see what we're dealing with…" Linda insisted, beckoning the rest to follow her down the hills.

What they saw was something they had only thought to be a nightmare; for it wasn't something they expected whatsoever. There was no crowd on the course, but there certainly was a crowd around the fences, the locked fences that is.

At the bottom of the slopes, Mr. Dog stood near the lift-in, looking as the kids approached.

"What's going on here Mr. Dog?" Slash asked, obviously confused, his voice hard to hear from the shouting and bickering of nearby tourists and people."

"Well, while I want to keep this course open, the amount of demand for people to board on it has gotten way too high. In such, I'm forced to close down Big Snowman and a few of the other courses until I can get a useable schedule set up for each course. In the meantime, courses that are still open can be found at my shop, you know where to look, I'm sure Slash." The old dog-man announced.

The kids obviously looked disheartened at hearing this news, Slash's jaw dropped, Linda's hair drooped down behind her head, Jam's eyes widened behind his goggles, Nancy's bright smile devolved into a disappointed frown, and strangely enough, Roger's complexion didn't look at all different, in fact if any of the kids looked, it almost appeared as if he was, grinning…

Next Chapter Soon, Hope you liked this longer one!


	7. Chapter 6: Plans and Motives Abound

Note to Readers:

It has come to my attention that some of my fanfics may be coming off as a tad forth-wall breaking and may have plot holes (Of course, every story does) such as with the level descriptions of boards and with the random attaining of weapons for the boarders, I wish to clear up a few things here.

A: I will from here on out not be speaking of the levels of boards, but special boards will still be named and revealed as they should be.

B: In the case of the items and weapons, as it would be too much of a hassle to actually say for each character to go through a shop and attain items or weapons, I have given it to the imagination of the reader (You all) to how they get the items.

And with that, I hope I have cleared some things up with this. I shall now begin this chapter.

It was a dismal walk back to Snowboard Street for the kids, Slash, Linda, Jam, Nancy, and Roger all a bit miffed at being forced to leave Big Snowman.

"Heck, now where are we going to practice?" Jam exclaimed, kicking a bit of snow up in frustration. "Big Snowman was like, one of the best places to get some good boarding in, now we've gotta go somewhere else to do it? It's not fair!"

"Well, you heard Mr. Dog." Linda said, a bit haughty with her words. "Too many people are causing the courses to be set on schedules, with this, it seems like every course will soon have a schedule. I'll even admit, even I wouldn't want to always have to set up an "appointment" every time I want to go snowboarding. I still wonder why everyone's moving here after what happened, I mean if they all knew what happened here a while ago…"

"Wait, wait wait…" Slash said; realizing something, "You think that would work? You think if everyone knew about what happened here a few times before, perhaps everyone would leave, or not bother to come here?"

"That's not right either!" Nancy interrupted. "People are coming to Snow Town because they have heard all the nice things about it. It would be wrong to turn them away because we're selfish about our snowboarding and our methods of fun. Regardless, that's not what's important right now, first Slash and Linda have a project to do."

Slash nodded unwillingly, Linda gave him a slight glare as he did so, but nodded as well.

"You're right Nancy." Linda said, taking Slash by the hand forcefully. "Come on Slash, let's get started, we can still make some progress today on the start of the Pioneer Project." Slash tugged a bit away from Linda's grip, but to no avail.

"Hey Roger!" Slash outburst towards the athletic-looking boy. "Remember, we've got a race! I'll meet you tomorrow, after 6:00 PM! Don't miss it!" Before Roger could attempt to say anything further, Linda carried Slash off.

"Hmm, Dizzy Land…" Roger thought to himself, stroking his chin. "Hey, Nancy, do you know much about Dizzy Land?"

"Hmm? Oh, of course!" Nancy said, fixing the cottontail on the back of her pants. "It's right near Big Snowman, just a few blocks down the street it's on. During the day, Dizzy Land's very fun to go to, but we have fun at it sometimes at night, it's a really good place if you know how to board well."

Roger nodded. "I think I'll take a couple goes on it. Thanks a lot Nancy." With that, Roger picked up his rather thick board, and walked off.

Jam looked over to Nancy, thinking a tad to himself, and then speaking. "Hey ears…" Jam said, egging Nancy on a bit with his half-hearted taunt. Nancy simply turned over and gave Jam a quizzical look.

"Hmm? Did you need something?" Nancy answered.

"Nah, just wanted to say, it doesn't look like our little competition's gonna be much easier either with all this." Jam replied, smirking a tad. "I mean, think about it; we're both the most nimble on the slopes, we both have some of the highest records for the Style and Talent Competitions here in Snow Town, yet we both rarely compete against one another. People say you're the best, people say I'm the best…"

Nancy shook her head as Jam spoke, then replied. "You're still worked up over that whole competition? Come now Jam, we've had this talk a bunch of times, I really don't mind if you want to say that you're the best at tricks, the only thing I want is to have fun; that's why I don't race as much as you all do; I think you all take the racing part a bit too seriously."

Jam shrugged a moment before he continued. "You know how I am though Nancy, I don't feel right unless I know that I've actually done what I say I do."

Nancy sighed a moment, then nodded as she replied. "Oh, fine. You know I really don't like races, but if you want one that badly, I suppose we could race with Slash and Roger…"

Jam smirked and nodded, offering a high-five to Nancy. "All right then!" The rapper boy shouted; "It's on then. They said 6:00 PM tomorrow; did they say where?"

"No, but I think I know where they'll be." Nancy replied. "Roger mentioned going to Dizzy Land right after Slash left, let's try there." Nancy gave Jam a light high-five.

Jam cheered after the high-five. "Alright! Finally I'm gonna get my chance against you, and this time it'll be official! May the best racer win!"

With that, the two went their separate ways.

Meanwhile, Linda and Slash were approaching the gates of Linda's Castle. Slash had finally been let go by Linda, and had followed her willingly. The gates opened slowly as the two approached. The two then proceeded to the front door, where Linda opened the front door on her own, and led Slash inside.

Once again Slash was greeted to the fancy decorations and luxuries that made the splendor of Linda's Castle. Upon entering, Linda led Slash to the lobby seats, and gave him a seat.

"Haven't been in here in a while…" Slash said, putting his arms on the arms of the chair.

"Don't get too comfortable though…" Linda said, still with a bit of a harsh look in her eyes. "We still have a project to get started on." Linda clapped her hands a moment, and the reliable butler, Yanci, approached the little Maltinie girl.

"How can I help you, Ms. Maltinie?" The tall butler replied.

"Yanci, please fetch us some pens, a few notebooks, and an encyclopedia article that has to do with the old pioneers." Linda ordered. Yanci nodded, turned, then headed to the study.

Linda turned around and sat down on the sofa, then looked to Slash. "Alright…" she began. "As you know, we don't have a lot of time to do this project, so every minute counts towards this. What I want you to focus on is only one side of the project. I'll let you have a choice of what side you want…"

"Alright then." Slash said. "What are my choices?"

"You can either choose do look at the old pioneers portion of the project and see what information you can find…" Linda offered. "Or you can go out and compare the ways of the old pioneers to that of the current immigration that we have here in Snow Town."

Slash thought a moment, folding his arms in thought. "Hmm, well, if I stay in here and just read books all day, that's going to be completely boring. In this case, I think I'll go and do comparing the two, that sounds easier, plus I can get out during that too."

Linda sighed and shrugged a bit. "Alright, but like I said, you better do your work."

"I will, I will…" Slash insisted, putting his hands up in dismissal.

Linda nodded, and smiled a tad, feeling a tad more comfortable on the subject. "Okay, we better set up what we're going to look for then, each of us have our own portion to look for, and when we finish, we'll meet back here again to mesh it all together, I think it'll work best that way."

With that, the two began to set up the guidelines for their project…

Back in Dizzy Land, Roger was practicing the turns and tricks of Dizzy land, getting a feel of the course, keeping himself ready for the race. It took him a couple of hours to get a decent feel of the course, but after a couple of laps, he stopped, went to the lift-in, and headed back towards Snow Town.

"Hmm, this track will take some getting used to, it felt like someone was watching me the whole time…" he said to himself as he walked back to the town. As he did, he couldn't help but feel that he was truly being watched…

Would he have looked closer, he would have known he was being watched, for two beady green eyes poked out from one of the park's tents, and a smirk became apparent beneath those eyes.

"Perfect, now I know where they will be…" the figure said, before withdrawing back into the tent.

- Will Slash and Linda be able to actually finish their project? What about the craziness of the immigration to Snow Town? What will come of the rivalry between Nancy and Jam? What's the plan that Roger's concocting for the race? Who is this mysterious figure in Dizzy Land? So many questions, answers to come as the story progresses!


	8. Chapter 7: Research and Races

- Note: If any of you have already figured out who the character was in the previous installment, this chapter may be a tad under whelming for you, but if you haven't, then, well, it won't.

The end of the day came swiftly, and school the next day blew by without a second thought; well, save for Linda and Slash…

School had just ended for the day; Slash and Linda met outside the schoolhouse to discuss their project.

"Alright, what have you got so far?" Linda asked Slash.

"Well, I managed to find some comparisons…" started Slash, as he took out a piece of paper and handed it to Linda.

It read:

Clustered Movement: Groups of people traveling together very close, almost family-like. Looks a lot like cattle.

Migratory: These same clustered groups move from one place to another all together as a family, and constantly are moving, even if it seems like they're not.

Linda nodded a bit, thinking to herself. "Alright, these aren't bad, we can use these, though we'll need more."

"What else do you need?" Slash asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Specifically, try looking at why they're moving here, if you can find that, we'll have a good conclusion to our project." Linda explained.

Slash nodded, and wrote down Linda's words quickly on another paper, then stashed it away, while also taking the paper back from Linda and stashing it as well. "Alright then, I have a race to get to."

Linda rolled her eyes, then nodded. "Well, you better at least make it to class tomorrow, we're supposed to work on the rest of the project, so make sure you have the information I need by then!"

Slash again nodded, then quickly tossed down his snowboard, gliding away down the street towards the nearby lift to get back up Snowboard Street.

Finally, after a small ride down the street, Slash approached the gates to Dizzy Land, right on time as he'd set. A few moments later, Roger approached the gates himself, walking up the side of Snowboard Street.

"Hey Roger!" Slash began, "You know you could have taken the lift from the bottom up here, right?"

"Yeah, but walking up helps a bit too, gets my legs all ready." Roger replied, giving his legs a bit of a stretch to recover from the climbing.

"So, you think you got a feel of the course? Think you can handle it?" Slash asked.

"I don't just think I can handle it, I think I can master it." Roger again replied, though adding a grin to the end.

"We'll see who wins then, you're not losing to me!" Slash said enthusiastically. "When the park closes, that's when we…"

"Hold it!" came two exhausted voices from up Snowboard Street, startling both Slash and Roger. It was Jam and Nancy, stumbling off their boards and meeting up with the two boys. "Sorry we're late…" Jam said, catching his breath.

"What are you both doing here? Here to watch?" Slash said with a bit of pride in his tone.

"We're here to compete actually." Nancy answered. "We want to make a race traditional, right? Jam wants to compete against me, and since you two were already going to race, we wanted to join in."

Roger thought a tad to himself, then looked to Slash and nodded. "Well, I don't think two more boarders are going to hurt, might even be fun."

"Well, we usually race with four people, it was how it started at the Maltinie Cup with Linda and stuff, ever since then it stuck with us." Slash explained.

"We gonna get this race all set up?" Jam asked, getting on his board and sliding to the starting line.

"We're waiting for the park to close, that's when it's available to us." Slash told Jam, who had forgotten.

"Heh, sorry about that, just caught up in the moment. I'm ready for one of the best races of my life." Jam cheered.

"There anywhere we can kill some time in the meantime?" Roger asked inquisitively, holding his board under his arm.

"Well, I suppose we can go to the hills nearby, it's no snowboarding course, but it's good for practice." Slash answered, motioning to a series of hills and bumps that seemed to deform what could have been an open field.

"Works for me." Nancy supported Slash's idea. "Then everyone will be at their best for the race, this'll be a lot of fun."

They went to the small series of slopes and began to practice, Jam and Nancy focusing primarily on their tricks and technique, while Roger and Slash focused on control and speed, preparing themselves for a very competitive and fierce race.

Finally the time had come, the night shift lights at Dizzy Land flipped on, and the kids quickly scampered to the starting line of the park.

Slash had what appeared to be an All Around Board; Nancy had brought her Alpine Board, as usual; Jam, having lost his best board to Slash a long time ago, had recently bought himself an All Around Board, and Roger's Board, which was shaped like an Alpine Board, was distinctively different than that of the rest of the kids' boards.

"So Roger…" Slash began, "I never asked this before, what the heck type of board is that?"

"Just an Alpine Board like anyone else's, only thing is that it's made of both wood and durable plastic, and I flattened the sides of the board." Roger replied.

"Wouldn't that just make it dig up snow or dirt?" Jam asked over to Roger.

"You'd think that, but when you learn to use both the ground and the board as your advantage, even the design of the board isn't going to matter much." Roger replied to Jam, giving a bit of a grin.

All of the kids were at the ready, but for some reason, they felt they had forgotten one thing…

Who was going to start the race?

Before any of them could consider it though, they heard a small explosion nearby, specifically coming from one of the nearby Dizzy Land tents…

"Uhh, what was that?" Slash asked everyone.

"Whatever it was, maybe it'll happen again, how about when it does, we all go?" Roger proposed.

"Right." The rest of the kids replied, and stood at the ready.

Sure enough, another explosion occurred, and the kids were off, though from the tent as well, a figure emerged on a board of their own, zooming down where the kids had started, behind them, and after them, with the kids not knowing that they were being pursued.

Slash was off to a quick start, blazing down the first couple of turns and taking the right side down the first corridor, he approached the first jump, and with ease, performed a quick flip with a nose grab to add some style to his descent.

Behind him was Nancy, who was pursuing Slash quite closely, she had taken the same route that Slash did, but did not perform a trick off the first jump, instead simply heading down the other side of the jump to gain speed on Slash.

Roger trailed behind Nancy a bit, failing to get a good start, but managing to keep the other two in sight, he took the left side of the first corridor, jumping off of it and giving a quick board grab to boot. On the jump, he performed a sideways 360 flip, landing it perfectly and maintaining his speed.

Tailing them all was Jam, who had also failed to start decently, to recover, Jam didn't take the left corridor as he usually did, instead focusing on a leap forward to catch up with Roger and the rest of the group. Off the jump, Jam performed an instance of his "Spinning Moon" trick and landed it just in time, giving a cheer to himself as he continued forward.

The pursuer was closing the gap between them, approaching Jam as he landed his jump. The pursuer quickly pulled a Freeze Shot from his satchel and hurled it forward.

Jam realized something was wrong, and quickly jumped up, avoiding the shot, though lost some speed as he jumped into a banked turn. As he turned about to see his attacker, he blinked a moment in disbelief as the boarder sped by.

The pursuer then began to approach Roger, who was finishing his way around the series of turns and approaching the next jump; before he could get off the jump, he felt a push from behind, knocking him over and sending him tumbling off the jump.

"Augh!" exclaimed Roger as he got up, turning around to look at his attacker. "Jam, why you…!" when he realized his attacker wasn't Jam, he gave a confused look as the figure passed by.

The figure continued forward away from the two others, and began to approach Nancy and Slash at a tremendous speed.

Slash and Nancy were competing for the lead at the time, both beckoning one another to pass to leave themselves open for the other to fire at them. As they approached the spinning cups of Dizzy Land, Slash took the opportunity and darted in front, Nancy throwing a Bomb in Slash's direction as he gambled his lead. The bomb missed, hitting a wall in the process, leaving Nancy to focus on getting through the cups rather than stop Slash.

The figure entered the spinning cups area, and zipped by them all with ease, coming neck and neck with Nancy, who had finally noticed the figure.

"Hey! What are you doing here!" Nancy exclaimed to the figure, obviously recognizing it, but as she was distracted, she biffed into a wall, the figure then continuing forward to approach an unaware Slash.

Slash had taken a small shortcut after leaving the spinning cups, getting a good distance away from the rest of the pack, save for the figure approaching him, who he had now noticed. A small jump was approaching, just as Slash saw it, the figure fired at Slash, but barely missed the spiky-headed snowboarder as he went over the jump.

"Finally I get to settle the score with you, and the rest of you all, Slash!" the figure spoke.

"Cheating as always, aren't you Damien?" Slash replied smugly, as he looked back to the figure.

It was indeed Damien, the same demon child that had come to Snow Town a few years ago to cause trouble and mischief to everyone in Snow Town, the little devil was from the Netherworld, and had a habit of causing the kids multiple sorts of trouble. It had been a while since Damien had shown his face to the rest of the kids, though through this, it seems he was ready to again…

- Anyone see that one coming? Well, like I said earlier, if you did, it may not have been as suspenseful as you would have thought. I apologize for not updating this any sooner, as I wanted to have this chapter done a week earlier. I will not schedule when the next chapter will be, but I will not rest until I finish all my fics, and use all my ideas!


	9. Chapter 8: Competitive Deception

Now approaching a series of banked turns, Slash and Damien challenged each other by slowing themselves as they boarded on the slopes, almost daring one another to take the lead. When the turns cleared, Damien had taken the lead, which signaled Slash to throw a slapstick in his direction. Damien, who had now expected it, made a quick jump, just in time to clear a gap in the path and land safely on the other side.

Meanwhile, Roger was challenging Jam for third, approaching the back of Jam's board carefully as they approached the banked turns that Slash and Damien battled over. Roger sized up the area, waiting as Jam began to turn the second bank, then quickly tossed a freeze shot as he began the turn himself.

Jam, completely unaware of this, more focused on the upcoming gap, was hit square by the freeze shot, right before the gap opened up in front of him. Roger zipped by the now immobilized Jam, and leaped over the gap, while Jam, whom finally shook himself free of the icy prison he had become familiar with, met the bottom of the gap, no longer having enough room to get a good speed.

Up ahead, Nancy was finally catching up with Slash again, she caught sight of him as they approached the water paths. Slash was making good progress through the twisty currents of the stream, but Nancy was making even better, finally getting in close range of him. Nancy pulled forth a parachute, ready to nail Slash with it, when she realized an explosion come face-to-face with Slash, knocking him over, just as well, with Nancy unable to stop herself, was also forced to the ground by the power of the explosion.

Slash shook himself off, and stood back up, continuing to board after Damien. Nancy as well stood back up from the explosion, and followed after Slash again; Damien, on the other hand, had already bolted for the lift-in.

Roger had gained some ground on Nancy, and Jam had begun closing the gap on Roger as they all reached the lift-in. The next lap began, Damien was in front (For whatever reason he had here), Slash was a small distance behind him, Nancy next, then Roger and Jam.

Not long after the lap had started, "THUNK!" pans dropped quickly on everyone's heads, save for the whom deployed them, the lucky one being Jam, whom, taking the new opportunity, sped by Roger and began catching up to Nancy. Roger lost his opportunity to attempt a decent trick off of the first large jump, and in such now focused on trying to catch up again. Instead, Roger used the slope of the ground to gain speed, and at the bottom of the slope, did a simple flip off the bottom jump, and used his newly gained speed to gain on Jam.

Jam though, was already approaching Nancy; they both cleared a long turn, and after making a small jump through a tent entrance, Jam hurled a snowman shot in Nancy's direction. Nancy was prepared for the shot, but unfortunately, it cost her even further. Nancy dodged the shot, but in doing so lost her direction and ended up careening off the side of the course into a watery gap. Jam passed Nancy after her bungling, and regained his place, Roger soon followed behind him, leaving Nancy in last.

The struggle between Damien and Slash had become even more heated. As they both approached the spinning cup attraction on the course again, one wrong move would throw a careless snowboarder into a crazy direction. The two entered the area, and were threatening each other by playing chicken with the cups as they passed by them.

"Just try it, Damien. You've never been to Dizzy Land." Slash egged onto Damien.

"Guess you haven't been paying much attention…" Damien mentioned. "I've been waiting for a chance to finally get back at you, and here it is, here in Dizzy Land!"

"By beating me at Snowboarding?" Slash asked, seeming confused. "You're not going to get much satisfaction even if you do that. Like that's going to happen, though!"

They cleared the cups and headed for the next area, both of them taking the shortcut as they continued to harass one another.

"I'm not here to just beat you, Slash, I'm here to humiliate you, and I'm here to get you back for what both you, and the rest of the kids did to me before! For foiling my plans!" Damien ranted as they approached the gap again.

Damien took a glide forward across the gap; Slash took a shot towards Damien with slapstick, but missed by a hair. Slash fired again as they both crossed the gap, but this time Damien jumped over the shot. Slash fired again, and though he was about to hit Damien square, he managed to take a turn sharp enough to shake it off of him, forcing Slash out of all his slapsticks.

Meanwhile, Roger and Jam were competing for third again. They both had cleared the gap, and were now just getting onto the water streams behind Slash and Damien. Unable to get a good aim at Jam, Roger decided on a different tactic. Using the flowing water to his advantage, Roger decided to ease up on the pressure against the board, allowing the water to accelerate him. Finally passing Jam, Roger did a long nose grab to his board, then landed and headed into the lift behind the two, followed by Jam, who for some reason, decided to let Roger pass…

Tailing the two was Nancy, but she seemed to be catching up slowly.

So now the order was Damien, Slash, Roger, Jam, and Nancy.

Finally, the last lap had come. Damien and Slash were already heading down to the first jumps when everyone began it.

Also finally, the reason for Jam's silence had become clear. After Roger had turned onto the main part of the track, he suddenly realized after a small impact to the side of his board, he was now covered in snow. Jam had gotten him with a snowman shot!

"What the…?!" exclaimed Roger as he careened out of control straight into the wall, falling over and finally shaking the snow off of himself; Roger got back up to his feet and chased after Jam, now more determined than ever.

Damien and Slash were constantly at each other's throats while this was occurring. Slash was attempting to get some slapstick shots on Damien, but Damien was smart enough to dodge them. Just as well, Damien was unable to hit Slash, as he would continuously hang behind to get shots off on him. While this continuing trend was going on, the others were slowly catching up.

Both Roger and Jam had begun to catch up with the leaders near the spinning cups. As the two leaders approached, Slash finally got the break he was looking for, and shot Damien with a slapstick. Damien fell over, rolled into one of the cups, and flew off into one of the walls.

"Gah!" Damien exclaimed as he crashed. He shook his head to regain composure, and got back up, but only to have Jam shoot him with a snowman shot, sending Damien again into a cup, then again into the wall.

"Argh! You'll pay for that!!" Damien shouted, but found his threat in vain as a pan from Roger then flattened him; and everyone else save for Roger. Roger slipped by Damien, who was now flattened, as well did Nancy, who was lucky enough to have an invisible tool on her to prevent the panning. Now truly angry, Damien yelled with rage as he got up, taking out a small remote control and pushing a small button that had the phrase "Last Resort" on it. "I will win this race, and stop you Slash, I WILL!" Damien continued as he finally continued forward.

The button had activated several traps ahead on the course that Damien planted himself. Damien grinned as he saw Slash up ahead approaching one. As Slash took a small shortcut after the spinning cups, he noticed the ground begin to lift upwards, sending his board down back the way he came! Not comfortable boarding backwards, Slash quickly flipped his board and unwillingly took the other route, now placing him in third, as Jam and Roger had overtaken him by taking the other route in the first place.

Jam took the next jump easily, doing a small grab as he performed a flip, then continued down the slopes. He then realized up ahead, a few strange blinking red lights on the course. They were hidden bombs! Jam realized what they were, thankfully, and managed to weave himself around the lights. Roger though, was not as fortunate, and though he did well on the first few, was caught off guard by one on the banked turn, and it detonated, sending him and Nancy, who was close behind, up into the air, and back down into the snow.

Slash took advantage of this and regained second, while Damien, knowing where the bombs were, retook third.

Finally, the water paths yawned before the kids once more. Jam took the banks in the water to give himself some speed, while Slash merely was trying to keep himself away from the walls. Damien crept up behind Slash on his board, and as he was about to put a parachute on Slash's back, Slash quickly turned away from an oncoming wall, sending Damien into the wall instead, causing Damien to lose ground.

"I told you you'd never beat me at my own game!" Slash taunted, bending around the turns and slowly catching up with Jam. The upcoming jump after the water bends was in sight. Jam decided to take it flashy, and as he went off, performed an incredible series of front flips, cheering loudly as he performed the trick. Though it looked like he was going to end up falling, he quickly turned his board flat to the ground again, landing safely, and giving himself another cheer as he landed it.

"Yeah, no one can beat that!" Jam cheered happily as he soared into the goal, turning his board sideways and grinding to a halt.

Slash took the jump and did a simple 360 flip, landing it easily and took second. As Damien was preparing to take third, the all familiar sound, "THUNK!" rung out as pans dropped on both Roger and Damien, and Nancy took a very lucky third.

Damien hopped forward, rage in his eyes as he approached the goal line, wanting at least to take fourth, though a few feet before he was able, a strange sound emitted behind Damien, and the kids saw Roger careening down the hill, his board tilted sideways as he slipped by Damien to take fourth.

"ARGH! NO!" Damien cried out, stomping the ground with his fists, pounding his head into the snow to bury his face in defeat. As he did so, he was picked up suddenly, and propped upwards by Roger.

"Look…" Roger began, "I like a good challenge and all, but when someone cheats like you did, I tend to take it not as a challenge, but as an insult. Normally I'd be forced to punish someone like you, but this is the first time we've met, so I'll simply say, don't do it again, or you'll regret it."

Damien glared at Roger, rage still running deep within him, but to avoid tarnishing anything further, Damien turned himself around and ran off, taking his board with him.

"I can't believe Damien showed up, after all this time." Nancy said, looking in Damien's general direction. "I mean, he could have done this at any time that you raced, Slash. Why'd he want to use Dizzy Land?"

"I'm not sure myself." Slash replied, shrugging a bit. "All he told me was that he wanted to see me humiliated, no matter what it took, as well as the rest of us. I mean, the rest of us aren't exactly even here, so his plan was kind of foiled to begin with."

"I think it's that his pride was tarnished." Roger suggested.

"What pride?" Slash asked. "Oh right, you don't know Damien all that well. Well, a while back, Damien showed up and was trying to cause all sorts of trouble for us here in Snow Town. After a while, he eventually built a giant robot to attempt to take us all down, and perhaps even do something horrible to Snow Town itself. We stopped him, and thought at some point that he would turn around, but he's just been a stinker ever since."

Roger nodded a bit, taking it all in. "I see, so his goal initially was to do what he did just now even. Well, as it happened before, and now happened recently, something tells me it won't be the last we'll see of him."

"Hey!" exclaimed a rather unattended Jam. "Aren't you all at least going to congratulate me?!"

"Oh yeah!" Nancy said and smiled, offering a hand to Jam. "Congratulations on your win. You did pretty good."

Jam blinked and widened his eyes. "That's it?! After all I did to beat everyone, that's all you're gonna say?!"

Nancy shrugged a bit, a little confused. "What else do you want? You beat me and the rest of us, what else is there to say?"

"But, but…" Jam stuttered, seeming rather speechless. "I worked so hard to beat you! I waited for this for so long, and then I finally did it, and this is it?!"

"Chill, dude. You beat her, and you beat me, good race though!" Slash supported his friend, Jam. "You won't get so lucky in the next race, though!"

Jam grinned a bit and looked to Slash. "Oh yeah? Just you wait then, I'll beat you like I beat you all today!"

Nancy smiled at Jam's easy sway of competitiveness. "Alright everyone, I have to get going, anyway. I have to finish some homework anyway…" with that, Nancy took the lift, and headed for home.

"I better take off too…" Roger said, picking his board up and offering Slash a hand. "I have to hand it to you, you're one heck of a boarder. I never would have thought I'd see my match, in an amusement park, even!"

Slash laughed a bit and shook his hand. "Told you I was good. Maybe we can race again sometime, maybe on some course more your style?"

"I kind of doubt it, actually." Roger said, frowning a bit. "You see, I'm only here in town for a few months, to see my family and such. Maybe sometime though, if I'm down here again, we can do so; maybe we won't get attacked by any crazy demons, either."

Slash nodded and ended the handshake. "Well, hope to see you again then, Roger." With that, Slash and Jam headed to the lift-in and headed home.

Roger looked up the slopes of Dizzy Land again, pondering a tad, and shook his head. "This wasn't what was planned at all, they were supposed to lose to me…"

Roger looked down to the ground, tapping his foot a bit in thought, a sly grin slowly crossing his face. "No matter, they've already taken the ruse. Soon, they won't have any way to practice their boarding, and while they'll lose their edge, I always have ways of practicing on my own. They'll be out of the sport soon, and that's when Snow Town will truly be ready…"

"Ready for a change that already covers most of the world?" a familiar voice supported Roger's plotting.

"Indeed." Roger smirked, looking behind him as Damien stepped forward, bowing his head gently.

"You were right…" Roger said, looking to Damien now. "These kids are truly talented, and their skills help defend Snow Town not just by snowboarding alone, but by their willingness to work together. They banded together to beat you, but they treated me as if I were one of their own. The ruse works perfectly…"

Damien nodded, sighing a bit. "You could have at least gone lenient on me…"

"Then the plan wouldn't have been as believable, would it?" Roger corrected the demon. "The more they think I am one of them, the more they will trust me, and the more they trust me, the further they'll let their guard down. It's the perfect plan, and it will be their downfall."

Damien pondered a bit. "It's cruel, Roger. I never would have thought of it…"

"That is why you are under my command, isn't it, Damien?" Roger assured him, Roger's eyes giving a similar green glimmer to Damien's for a moment, then glinting back to their normal color. Roger then headed to the lift-in and headed upwards.

"Never would have thought of it, at all…" Damien repeated to himself, a small frown almost crossing Damien's face…

The race may be over, but problems still run amuck in Snow Town. Roger's in league with Damien? Will Slash finish his report with Linda? Jam won the race? Review what you think so far, and thank you for reading this far into this volume, but there's more to come! Stay tuned!


	10. Chapter 9: Double Infiltration

The next day at school, Slash and Jam were approaching the front door of the building, where Linda and Nancy were waiting for them; as well Roger was approaching a bit of a distance behind the two boys.

"So did you get the last bits of information for our project, Slash?" Linda asked as the boys approached.

"Yeah, yeah." Slash began, "It was actually easy, I decided to take a walk down by Rookie Mountain on the way here and see how people were gumming up the lines, and I found a few more bits of information."

Linda nodded in acknowledgement and picked up her backpack, which was sitting on the front door steps. Jam and Nancy had already walked into the building, followed by Slash, Linda, and Roger who was now catching up to Slash and Linda.

"Hey guys, some race the other day, huh?" Roger exclaimed as he approached the two.

"Hey Roger, yeah, it got a little heated, no thanks to Damien though." Slash replied.

"Damien?" Linda asked, raising an eyebrow. "What happened?"

Slash realized Linda hadn't been at the race, so she hadn't known about anything that occurred at it. "Well, during the race, Damien barged in and started to cause trouble. He wasn't all that much of a problem to deal with, though he did take us by surprise early on." Slash explained.

"I'll keep an eye out for him as well then." Linda replied. "If he went after all of you during a race, he's bound to show up again; he hasn't shown himself in a while, so this is kind of unexpected."

"I still don't get who this Damien guy is…" Roger started. "I mean, he had skin that looked like he'd been out in the snow a bit too long, hair as black as Slash's, and horns?"

"Wendy, one of our friends, said he was some sort of demon from the Netherworld." Linda began to explain.

"I already told him that part." Slash said.

"Well I don't know everything you do, do I Slash?" Linda corrected him. "He's supposedly very smart and very good at snowboarding, and she thinks his purpose for being here is to simply cause trouble in Snow Town for everyone by pulling dangerous pranks, many to a much higher degree than Slash does."

"Hey! My pranks are funny!" Slash exclaimed at Linda's comment.

"It wasn't an insult, Slash." Linda corrected him once again.

"So he's likely back thinking he's found a new way that he can beat you all, like what you said back at Dizzy Land?" Roger asked.

Slash nodded, and shrugged a moment after, "After how we beat him before, I'm surprised he hasn't gotten the message yet. He lost despite his efforts, he should just back down and give up."

Roger gave a light glare to Slash for his words, keeping the glare concealed though so as not to attract attention. "Perhaps he'll just end up like he did before…" Roger said quickly, attempting to redirect his offense to Slash's comment.

"That's what I think, for sure." Slash agreed.

"Anyway…" Linda interrupted, "We should probably get to class and refine what information we've gotten on our project. Today's the last day to work on it in class, and I think we've got enough information now that we can probably finish it in class today."

Slash nodded again. "Yeah, we'll talk to you later Roger."

Roger waved and headed off down another hallway in the school, while the others walked to their classroom down the main hallway…

In the meantime, Jam and Nancy were already in the classroom, speaking to each other on the events of yesterday.

Jam was obviously still excited of the race before with his comments, "And I was all like, 'You can't get me!' and Roger was all 'Oh no you don't!' Then the start of that last lap where I plowed that snowman into Roger and nabbed my place back, then got by Slash and Damien, that was awesome! I even showed everyone up with that trick at the last jump!"

Nancy smiled a bit, "I'm glad you're happy you won the other day, Jam. You really did well during that race."

Jam replied still as excited as ever, "You bet I did! That was one of the most intense races I've ever been in, and I won it! This is a race I won't forget in a while!"

Nancy sighed a moment, and nodded. After a few moments later, class began and the kids prepared for their day at school…

Meanwhile, near Snow Town Central, Damien was lurking around the shops, avoiding notice of the large crowds that were gathered in town. Many of the groups from the previous days had begun to disperse with the distribution of homes and the like, but some were still present. Damien scurried through the alleys and approached Wendy's Internet, taking out a small device and approaching the back door. The door had a strange sensor lock on it, obviously made by Wendy herself.

"Okay, now I just use these buttons here…" Damien thought to himself, pressing a few keys on the device. A small beam of light emitted from the device, which Damien pointed to the sensor. The sensor beeped and flashed a moment, and then the lock opened. Damien opened the door and snuck inside.

Within, Damien entered what appeared to be a storage room for the building. Many boxes, shelves, and tools were neatly placed along the walls and on stand-alone shelves. He began to shuffle through some of the boxes, and when he found a part that he liked, he pocketed it and moved to the next one.

Eventually, he heard someone approaching the room; Damien quickly jumped into a larger box and closed the lid.

The light inside turned on, and Wendy entered the room from the main room door. She approached the bookshelves and searched for something.

"Hmm, I just need a USB extension cord for that network adaptor. There's bound to be one still in here…" She muttered to herself in thought. She then searched the other shelves, and was thankful to finally find a few extensions in a small box on one of the shelves. She took the box and left the room through where she came.

Damien waited for silence, and then poked out of the box he hid within. He looked around carefully again, trying to keep silent.

"Plenty of stuff to use, but I still can't find it…" Damien thought to himself, looking for something in specific.

Beginning to get a bit more drastic, Damien approached a series of filing cabinets, and took out a small lever to wedge the locked cabinets open. With a loud pop sound, the lock on one of the cabinets snapped off of its attachment. Damien pushed the cabinet shut again and retreated into the box he was in before, as the noise would have surely alerted someone.

His instincts were right, as Wendy again showed up in the room alerted to the noise. She checked the room carefully, and then, finally chalking up the noise probably to a bratty kid doing something outside, left the room.

Damien came out again from his hiding spot, and opened up the filing cabinet he opened earlier, flipping through the papers within. He pulled out one paper he seemed to be looking for, and then nodded a bit to himself.

"Alright, now to just get out of here…" He thought to himself, and was able to easily weave his way out the back door, then locking the sensor lock again.

Damien walked away calmly from the building, and headed towards his home nestled behind a forest in Snowboard Street. "Well, either this will really cause a lot of trouble, or it'll just bring me back to square one…" Damien muttered a bit. "It just makes me wonder how I'll decide to actually use this."

He looked at the paper again, it being a series of blueprints for robots and different weaponry…

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again, more foreshadowing here. Believe me, these will all tie in together when the story finishes. I plan to have only a few more chapters for this volume, so don't fret, this volume will be completed!


	11. Chapter 10: Seeds of Scandal

School had ended, and the kids were preparing to head out for home. Linda and Slash met up in front of the school, where not far from them, the mass of humanity that flooded the streets of Snow Town had still been forming.

"Didn't think we'd get that project done in class with all the distractions..." Linda said to Slash.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I got a little into Jam's talk about the race yesterday, and since Nancy was working with Tommy for today's assignment, since we were closer, he figured he'd talk to us." Slash replied.

"Well, he's got to stop obsessing over it so much, so he won a match, doesn't mean he has to keep it up after the race is over." Linda suggested.

"No use worrying about it now." Slash said wisely.

"True, anyway, i'll hold onto the project and we'll present it to the teacher in class tomorrow." Linda said.

"Alright, see you then." Slash said, giving a small sigh of relief.

Linda headed off with the project under her arm towards her castle, while Slash got on his board and headed towards Snowboard Street to take the lift-in to the top of the street. He saw Tommy just getting on the lift-in.

"Hey Tommy, how's it going?" Slash said, greeting him.

"Hey Slash, not too bad, a little sleepy from school, that lecture during Math Class was so long-winded..." Tommy replied sleepily.

"I got my project done with Linda in class, so that's all set, didn't think it'd go so smoothly." Slash said.

"Aside from what I heard about Linda chasing you..." Tommy started until Slash cut him off.

"...Hey hey! Let's not dwell on that!"

"Well it's true." Tommy insisted. "Really if you would have helped Linda with the project earlier, you probably wouldn't have had to work on it until the last day."

"The teacher gives us time to do our project, and I can use that time to do what I want so long as I get the project done, right?" Slash started.

"Yeah, that's right..." Tommy agreed.

"So there you go." Slash said with a smile.

Tommy just sighed, shaking his head. "Well, at least I heard about that race you guys had, too bad about Damien screwing things up for you all."

"He didn't screw much up." Slash insisted. "All he really did was add some more trouble to the race, and it wasn't even all that much, just really another racer on the road, and one who wouldn't even win if he got first place."

"Still makes me wonder why he showed up." Tommy said.

"Well, let him show, he doesn't frighten me." Slash said proudly.

With that, they continued up the lift in...

Meanwhile, Linda had just returned home, and headed to her room. She opened a drawer in her room and put the project in it, closed the drawer, then headed over to the bathroom to change outfits.

A few moments later, as she was coming back out in a dress, she was startled to hear a knock at her room door.

"Who is it?" Linda asked.

The butler, Yanci, replied through the door. "There is a Master Roger here to see you, Miss Maltinie..."

"Oh! Let him in then." Linda acknowledged.

A moment later, the door opened, and Roger walked in, holding his trusty board under his arm. "Hey Linda, how's things going? Did Slash finish with that project with you?"

"Yeah, i'm surprised we did so well on it." Linda said, shrugging a bit. "I suppose for a brat, he can get his work done when you give him the right discipline."

Roger chuckled a bit. "Well, I came because I wanted to invite you, Slash, and Wendy to a race. I figured since I got to race a bit with you guys, I could invite you all to race again."

Linda smiled a bit. "That sounds fun, I suppose I could go for a race after all this stress, but..."

Roger looked at her curiously. "But...?"

"Where are we going to race with all the people in Snow Town? Almost all the courses are closed down save for the ones i'd need to take a helicopter too, like Crazy Jungle." Linda asked.

Roger shrugged a little. "You've got a point, seems a little difficult to race with all the people here, but you know, you COULD race even with all the people here..."

Linda raised an eyebrow at the thought. "What do you mean? Are you insisting I race through the crowds, and possibly hurt people?"

Roger shook his head. "Don't picture it like that, picture it more like using your snowboarding skills to put yourself to the test, to get through Snowboard Street without actually hitting any of the people in Snow Town, it'd be the ultimate race course!"

Linda blinked a bit. "True, all those people would make racing a lot harder, but wouldn't they complain about it?"

Roger shook his head once more. "What if I told you that the people were actually here to watch some of the Snowboarding matches?"

"I suppose then I wouldn't care as much, but why would they? I thought they were here for the housing?" Linda asked.

Roger laughed a bit. "Is that what you heard? They're here because they heard of all the snowboarding and such out here, and many of them want to get in on the action, so many moved up here just to try it."

Linda shrugged a bit. "Well I figured that, but they plan to stay up here, don't they?"

"Possibly, but why not show them a taste of what they want to see up here?" Roger insisted.

Linda nodded a bit in realization. "Very good point..." She said. "Alright, you have my ear on this race then, when do you want to have it?"

Roger smiled a bit. "Tonight at 9:00 PM. I'll inform Slash and Wendy on the race as well. I asked Mr. Dog to help sponsor the race, so everything should be alright in this case."

Linda nodded again, smiling a bit. "Alright then, 9:00 PM it is, i'll make sure to bring my best skill with me, I heard you race pretty well, so expect a run for your skill, Roger." She said with a grin on her face.

Roger grinned a bit at the words. "Oh I'll be ready, you should be as well..." He said as he turned away, his voice darkening with those words.

--------------------------------------------------------

- And so another chapter done, this was more of a setup chapter for the next chapter, but I think it got the job done nicely. I should have the next chapter of this up sometime this month, so here's to some more recent updates from me.


	12. Chapter 11: Impending Decision

NOTE: I know I said more frequent updates, though I guess it's not as easy as I would have hoped. In such, I will be updating when I am able, but know that I have not forgotten that this series needs to be completed, and my ideas for another volume have not been forgotten either!

With that, let's get to today's chapter:

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Our chapter begins in a warehouse near the summit of Snowboard Street. Two figures speak amongst one another, one holding what appears to be a snowboard under his right arm, the other leaning on a strange mechanical contraption.

"I see you've made yourself useful for once, Damien." Roger spoke, looking over to the demon child as he stood his snowboard upright, planting the bottom of it in the light snow.

"I've learned quite a bit from that girl in my time here, and if there's one thing I've learned from her, it's to always come prepared, and to always have a backup plan." Damien replied, looking over to the contraption, motioning Roger to do the same.

The robot appeared to be an exact replica of his old BK Robot. The front cannon, the mechanical arms and legs, and of course the cockpit atop where Damien would operate his tool of destruction and mayhem. There were some different grooves on parts of the robot, but otherwise it looked almost exactly the same.

"You know the plan then..." Roger began. "In mid-race, as we're coming up the lift-in, start down the street and destroy as much as possible. Before you reach the town, veer off so that you're not noticed by the townsfolk. Then when the kids come down the street with their weapons and competitive attitudes, the townspeople will think it was they who caused the destruction of Snowboard Street, and much of the landscape of Snow Town."

"Where should I veer off at though?" Damien asked, curious. "If I veer off near the Kuehnemund Residence, I might be too close and they'll notice. I already have to make a long-range shot to hit the Parsy Place Restaurant, any ideas?"

Roger pondered, then nodded a bit. "Don't go that far then, as soon as you just pass the Neil Residence, stop short, and demolish the last two targets from afar. Then veer off the course across the buildings, and conceal the Robot in the forests."

Damien nodded in agreement. "Good point, if I do that, they can't follow me, and by the time they can, the trail will be cold."

"What's your backup plan in case the plan botches?" Roger asked Damien, an eyebrow raised.

Damien hesitated a moment, as if to ponder, then spoke. "I'm to act as if it were another of my attacks, and make sure they believe that, so as not to arise our true intention."

Roger nodded, smirking a bit. "The kids are as good as gone when this starts. Finally I won't need to continue this ruse anymore. With the kids out of the way, we can finally finish the job here. Even if it doesn't work, we'll still be a step closer to finishing the job, and it'll still be easy enough."

With that, Roger tossed his board down and got on, looking to Damien one last time. "Put it this way Damien, all your past failures will have finally come to fruition as a success here. It may not be your own plan at work here, but at least you can say you've succeeded."

Damien nodded a bit in return, then turned to his robot, preparing to start it up. Roger turned to leave, heading out to Snowboard Street to go and meet with the kids.

...

Meanwhile, the rest of the kids were approaching the starting line at the top of Snowboard Street, walking up the street with boards under arm. Linda was still talking amongst the rest of the kids about the idea of being able to show everyone in town their awesome snowboarding skills, though Nancy and Tommy were listening with disinterest, feeling it was simply Linda bragging again.

"And to cross that finish line at the bottom, to show who really is the best snowboarder in Snow Town, that will be a feeling I'll want to treasure forever!" Linda exclaimed, though Slash quickly interjected. "You? Come on Linda, we know that it's going to be me winning this time! You've got nothing on Snowboard Street!"

As the two began to bicker, Jam just shook his head and smirked. Though he wasn't racing, he knew he wouldn't miss the chance to see a race like this. "Man, why couldn't I jump in this race? There's a whole crowd, and I'm not in the spotlight to show 'em all my stuff!"

"There'll be other races too, Jam, you know that already well enough." Nancy assured him. "Remember that one time when you weren't able to race at Dizzy Land, but then you got to race the next day at Quicksand Valley? You did so good back then, and there was a full house waiting for you at the bottom."

Jam smirked, nodding. "Yeah, that was a heck of a race. I never thought sand would be so hard to board on. Was really hot there too, made that tougher."

"But you won, and not only that, you got the crowd you wanted, and the victory you wanted." Nancy added. "It shows when you really want something, you just gotta give it all you can, and you'll get it."

With that, the kids began to prepare their race. Roger was already at the top waiting for them, his funny-shaped board already down and under his foot as he looked down at the kids. Wendy looked up at Roger, and couldn't help but feel some sort of familiarity with Roger. Perhaps the darkness of the night made her look at him in a different way, but she just shook her head and continued to the starting line, though kept the thoughts in her head.

Tommy, Nancy, and Jam all sat down near the lift-in to get a good seat for the race.

Linda had brought with her an Angel Board for this race, newly purchased from the Board Shop. Slash had decided to bring the old favorite that had helped him back at Mountain's Grace, and during the race at Night Highway, the Blaze Board was back. Wendy was told not to bring her High-Tec Board, so instead she decided to bring a Level 3 Alpine Board. Roger of course was using his strange, all-terrain board that he had used in his previous race.

Back in the nearby warehouse, Damien noticed from a camera that the kids were preparing, so he flicked on the switches to his robot, got inside, and began to warm up the BK Robot.

Mr. Dog floated down to the starting line in his hot air balloon, looking to all the racers on the course. Slash, Linda, Wendy, and Roger all looked prepared, so Mr. Dog pointed his pop-gun upwards, then with a loud bang from the gun, the race had started.

Luck must have been on Linda's side early on, for as soon as the gun sounded, she leapt out almost instinctively, bursting out for a quick head start. Slash and Roger followed in close range, while Wendy was left in the dust, she hopped a bit to gain some momentum, then was finally on her way.

Linda quickly shred the first turn, crossing the nearby bridge that made up part of Snowboard Street, then hairpin-turned the next turn to make the next bridge. Roger began to creep closer to her, but Slash was making it difficult by keeping Roger pushed aside, slowing him down. Wendy finally began to catch up, and with a swift glide across the second bridge, had passed Slash and Roger.

Roger grumbled and finally forced Slash aside, attempting to gain lost ground. Slash followed close. Linda nabbed a nearby blue box on the slopes, getting a Rock as her item. Disappointed, she decided to drop it at the upcoming tunnel, leaving the rest of the racers something to worry about. Much to her delight, Wendy was unprepared for this, and as Wendy turned the corner to enter the upcoming tunnel, tripped on the rock and crashed into the side of the tunnel wall.

Roger and Slash finally re-passed Wendy as they came to the tunnel, and began to catch up with the leading rich girl. Roger fortunately grabbed a red box and got himself a set of Freeze Shots. Aiming, he flung the chilly shards at Linda. Much to his dismay, Linda was boarding rather close to part of the wall, and as the shards arced to hit her, smacked into the wall, missing her. Slash grabbed the red box just after Roger, and had gotten a set of bombs. Disappointed that he couldn't just load them into the Blaze Board himself, he hurled one of them at Roger. The bomb narrowly missed Roger, but it did however pass by and crash into Linda as she was preparing to go over an oncoming jump! The blast missed Roger, allowing him to make the jump and do a showy trick. A rather annoyed Linda finally got back to her feet, and after sliding backwards a moment to gain momentum, went back up and over the jump to get back into the race.

As of now, the race order was: Roger in first, Slash in second, Linda in third, Wendy in fourth.

Wendy wasn't ready to quit yet, she weaved herself into a distant blue box and got herself a rocket. Attaching the rocket to her board, she sped herself up and over the next jump, catching up to Linda, then finally blowing right by her. Linda was getting fed up with being left behind, and began to gain speed to catch up with the group.

By this point, the kids were about half way to the goal, a loud humming sound could be heard coming from the warehouse...

-----

- Been a while since I did an update, huh? Like I said, updates will occur as I am able to do them. The next chapter WILL be the end of Volume 3, so be ready for it!


	13. Chapter 12: Abrupt Finale

Author's Note: The final chapter of volume 3, the one all the viewers for this series I'm sure have been waiting for. I want to personally say that it has taken me a long time to break this writing block, but I have never lost hope in finishing this fic. And now for your reading pleasure, the final chapter of Snowboard Kids: A Fanfic Volume 3.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CRASH! The warehouse doors burst into splinters as Damien emerged from the warehouse with his new BK Robot. Nancy, Tommy, and Jam immediately noticed the calamity and quickly got on their boards to intercept the demonchild from interfering again.

Roger noticed Damien's interference, and smirked a bit, though kept his face from showing to a gaining Slash, who had just grabbed himself a set of Slapsticks.

Slash maneuvered a slight distance away from Roger to get a better aim on him, and with a flick of the wrist, Slash let the Slapstick fly, perfectly hitting Roger in the side with it, sending him careening into a nearby wall.

Roger pushed himself to his feet, a little upset from the sudden hit. He grabbed a nearby red box to get himself a set of Parachutes, and flung them like crazy at Slash, but Slash already made his way around the next turn, the Parachutes missing Slash entirely. Roger was getting frustrated by now, but even moreso now that Wendy and Linda had just zipped by him.

"They're going to get away before Damien can do anything, I've got to slow them down..." Roger thought to himself. He struggled over to nab a nearby blue box, luck smiled on him as he grabbed a set of Pans, and the next second, SPLAT! Slash, Linda, and Wendy were all on the ground under a sudden pan attack.

Roger reclaimed some ground, but purposely drew backward to let Damien pass him. Damien was fast approaching the kids, but for whatever reason, Damien hadn't started firing at anything yet. Roger was confused, as the plan was to destroy Snowboard Street and blame it on the kids.

"What are you doing, Damien?!" Roger called out to him, but Damien didn't reply, continuing towards the Neil Residence now, and then running off the course to conceal himself. Roger grumbled to himself, but continued on in last place, heading towards the lift-in.

Jam, Tommy, and Nancy lost track of Damien, then quickly got off their boards to rush back towards the lift, to give the racers the information.

Of course, things weren't so easy down by the lift-in itself. As the kids approached, the bottom of Snowboard Street was littered with people, camped out or standing around. Slash had difficulty weaving around the moving obstacles, and finally ended up tripping over a bag left on the street. With that, Wendy took the lead, and proceeded into the lift-in.

Linda was having problems as well, she attempted to stay near the side of the street to avoid people, but it ended up slowing her down in the process. She didn't lose her place, but it did prevent her from making a move on Wendy.

With Roger bringing up the rear, the kids all proceeded to the top, where the others were waiting.

"Guys, watch it, Damien's running around out there, he tried following you guys." Jam exclaimed as Slash got to the top. Slash glared a bit hearing this, then nodded. "Figures, don't worry, we'll take care of him."

The others took in the news, then proceeded with the second lap with caution.

It didn't take long this time for Damien to pop out from hiding, he emerged just as the kids were approaching the Kamei Residence this time. Much to Roger's surprise again, Damien wasn't firing at anything.

Roger decided to take precaution and at least not lose the race, he grabbed a blue box, this time having a Ghost in it! He let it loose, and Wendy suddenly noticed the ghost appearing in front of her, haunting her.

"Whoa! Get away!" Wendy yelled as she attempted to shoo the ghost away from her, swerving a bit from the sudden surprise. Wendy began to fall behind as Slash retook first from her, sliding past her and darting around the next turn.

Wendy noticed Damien's robot approaching, she frantically moved towards a nearby red box, and thankfully managed to grab a set of Bombs. She hurled them backwards towards Damien, one of them blasting into the robot's left leg, knocking some of the plating off of it. She threw the next bomb, but it missed this time and crashed into the side of the course. The third one crashed into the robot's other leg, but nothing came off the robot with that blast.

Damien was still not firing at the kids, even though he already had been fired at. He was continuing to run the robot at a steady pace behind the kids now, purposely slowing so that the kids would pass him. Roger was confused at this, but used the confusion with the other kids to start gaining, passing Linda who was now pushed into fourth.

Linda was attempting to gain speed, and with a blue box in reach, she snatched it to reveal a Fan, which helped her start regaining her momentum. Linda glid across the next turn, speeding by Roger, then approaching Slash, which she threw a Freeze Shot at.

Slash noticed her coming, and jumped over the Freeze Shot. Slash then went off the oncoming jump with a grab and a 360 spin, landing safely and keeping his guard up with Linda nearby, and of course the giant robot following them all.

Roger reached for a blue box himself, and was fortunate to find a Rocket. He immediately used it, then blasted forth in front of the group, stealing first from even Wendy.

That was the cue that Damien needed, with that, he aimed his robot's head cannon at Roger, then fired a strange-looking airborne bomb at Roger, flying over the other kids towards him.

Roger noticed the shot, and glared over, noticing that Damien had in fact turned on him! He attempted to get around the next turn, but the bomb was specially made, it turned just as easily with Roger, then collided with him, exploding and sending Roger into the air, then back to the ground.

Damien snickered, pointing at Roger. "I'll handle Snow Town on my own, thank you very much! I don't need your help to do it, Roger!" Damien then fired one more bomb at Roger, this time straight at the ground near him, which of course exploded again, this time blowing Roger clear into the nearby wall. With that, Damien rode his robot out into the woods towards his house, away from the course.

Roger shook a fist in the air in Damien's direction. "Curse you, Damien! I'll make you pay for this! You didn't even destroy one of them!"

Slash glid over towards Roger, expecting to help his friend, but found that Roger had in fact changed from the explosions, Roger's skin was now as blue as Damien's, and his once welcoming eyes, as deep green as Damien's.

It was true, Roger was a demonchild, just like Damien.

"What the...what the heck is this?" Slash exclaimed as he noticed Roger's true identity. Wendy glid over to notice as well, as did Linda.

Roger looked down at the ground, frustrated from his identity being suddenly exposed. "I can't believe this, I just can't believe this..."

Wendy folded her arms, pondering. "I think I get it, why this all happened." The racers looked to Wendy for insight. "I was wondering why we were racing on Snowboard Street when it was so busy, now it makes sense. It was a plot, a plot to have our Snowboarding look like something dangerous that would scare everyone and make us look bad. The crowds would have amplified that even more, might have even caused a panic, making more trouble."

"So in short, he used the crowds to try and villify us?" Linda questioned. Wendy nodded. "Of course it didn't work right, and in fact I think it worked the complete opposite, when Damien turned on him, he revealed you to us."

"But why would Damien help us?" Slash asked with some frustration. Wendy smirked a little. "Because like how Damien is with you Slash, Damien was jealous of Roger because he thought Roger had everything thought out, and Damien wanted to be better than him, so he sabotaged Roger's plan."

Linda snickered a little, "So he plotted against the plotter? That's pretty clever!"

Wendy nodded again, "Which is why I'll have to keep a closer eye on him. Right now though, I think we have to figure out what to do with Roger here..."

Roger gulped, noticing the kids approaching. "I don't think so, I may have failed here, but this isn't over!"

Before he had a chance to run, Wendy had already pulled out a familiar little device. She pressed the button, and suddenly, Roger was but a few inches tall!

The rest of the kids blinked, wondering where Roger went, that is until Wendy picked him up and put him in a small jar with holes. "Maybe I can use him for some other mini-course tests later, after all, he'll need me if he wants to get to normal size again."

Linda nodded a bit. "At least he won't be a threat anymore then, I still feel bad though that I actually thought he would have fit in with us, and that it was simply all a lie."

By now, the rest of the kids had joined with the racers. They were filled in on what had happened, and had mixed feelings about it.

"Well now, at least I won't have to worry about someone else trying to be the best on the slopes." Jam said, smirking.

"What about the race, guys?" Tommy asked inquisitively.

That was right, the kids hadn't finished the race, and now that they were short one racer, they'd need to restart.

"I'd say let's try again when it's not so crowded..." Linda said. "At least then we can have some fun."

The kids agreed, and with that, they all went their separate ways for the night.

...

The next day, Slash had already gotten ready for school, and was heading down Snowboard Street to get to class. As soon as he slid by the Kuehnemund house, he braced himself for crowds, but much to his surprise, the crowds had begun to disperse! Sure there was a few bits and pieces of garbage on the street, but no one was on the road!

"What happened here?" Slash asked, looking around, noticing Linda near the school. "Hey Linda, where'd everyone go? I thought I'd be swamped with people out here again by now."

"Looks like everyone started changing their mind about Snow Town." Linda replied, motioning to a newspaper near the schoolhouse door. Slash took a look at the paper to get an idea. It read:

"New homes in Shadesville, city draws immigrants in droves from Snow Town due to Snow Town's lack of housing. Snow Town to re-open local venues once again, though higher traffic expected from tourism."

"Wait, tourists?" Slash asked.

"Just means more competition for you and I, Slash." Linda grinned. "Just a few more for us to show that we're the best!"

Slash grinned, but suddenly realized something. "Umm, why are you being all buddy-buddy with me all the sudden?"

Linda took that moment to hand Slash a small paper, it was a grade sheet from the teacher, for Linda. On it was a perfect score!

"Wait, we aced the project?!" Slash exclaimed.

"No, I aced my part in it, yours is still to be determined." Linda explained. "I suppose I have you to thank for giving me a good grade too..."

Slash smiled, nodding. "If you got a good grade, then I'm bound to get one too. I guess we made a good team, huh?"

Linda nodded. "Let's just not get too used to it, spikey. After all, we still have a rematch to schedule on the slopes."

Once again, Slash grinned. "Hah, yeah, and I'll make sure I beat you for sure!"

"You only wish!" Linda bragged back at him, with a grin on her face too.

With that, the two ran into class, preparing for the school day to come, and the race that would follow thereafter...

Of course, that's another story.

---------------------------------------------------

- And so I leave you all again with another foreshadowing for another volume. I have the first chapter of the next volume in mind, and will be working to get at least 3 done before I start posting my next volume. I hope you all enjoy my stories, as confusing as some of them may be. Please leave a review if you'd like!


End file.
